Village School Day

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Dear friends of ACT,

We have arrived at our hotel in Kabale at 8:30pm for our dinner. A wonderful day in the villages. We started at the temporary ACT offices preparing to go to the first school for Curt to do his program for the kids. On the way, we drove by the ACT Empowerment Center but did not have time to go through it yet. Dave Viele went in and spent some time scrutinizing the workmanship and taking many, many photos.

We met the students at Muko Martyr’s school first. There were about 200 kids from kindergarten to P7. They were sitting outside in the grass as Curt started. Per usual, the kids were very silent and attentive and fairly non-participative – until Curt started…  They suddenly came alive and could not have been more delighted at his tricks and ventriloquism with Gerbert the puppet. My oh my, were they amazed. Generous assured us they have never, ever seen anything like what he presented. By the time. As part of the presentation, Karen Viele played her violin and the kids were so happy. They performed for us dancing and singing. Katie and Sydney got up and danced with them. That delighted them immensely. We handed out the Book of Hope to the kids. They heard the gospel in the most creative way.

During this first program, the next door neighbors, All Saints school, requested we come there as well. We added them in. There were about 100 kids. They loved Curt’s program and Karen’s violin.

The third program was at Muko High School. We had the primary and secondary schools combined. It was amazing – 300+ kids in their courtyard. They started off quietly as well but were quickly engaged. They did a drama for us and sang their school anthem. Their voices are beautiful. We again, handed out the Book of Hope to the kids. It was the Curt and Karen show! While Karen was playing her violin for the students, one of the students went and got his instrument – a Ugandan endingidi. It looked a bit like a half lyre and it was covered in goat skin. He snuck up next to Karen and started playing Amazing Grace. She immediately joined in and it was a wonderful moment!

Our fourth school was Good Hope Kindergarten through P7. We went straight down a big hill across what was a stream previously or in the rainy season and back up a very, very steep hill of hard-packed dirt to the school. We were joking about walking to school every day uphill both ways! We got all the way over to the school and Curt realized he needed something else from the van. He returned and as he came down the hill to the ravine (we were all watching him approach). As he got halfway across a huge turkey appeared and began chasing him. He was swinging his wires for the equipment at the turkey trying to escape. Needless to say, it was very funny. The turkey finally waddled off gobbling. The kids at Good Hope were about 150 and again were so very happy with the program and their Books of Hope.

Our last school (it was now 5pm and the Headmaster kept all the students there for the program) was Mulore private school. It is actually on the road on the way back to Kabale. What a great school. The grounds were very nice and the owner is a young man probably in his 30’s and we were all so very impressed with his demeanor and communications skills. His students have been ranking very high in the National tests – better than the other schools were Muko HOPE orphans are. Generous and I talked about bringing the kids to this school. Headmaster. There were about 450 students! They were very animated during the program. They also performed songs for us. We thought it was so late but they begged Karen to get her violin and play it. She did. Another wonderful program.

At each school following the programs, we met with the Muko HOPE orphans to distribute the sponsors’ packets and bring greetings. Lazara took wonderful pictures of the kids (482 pictures!) Sydney and Katie measured the heights of each child and used a legal pad to draw around their feet to measure their shoe size. Karen handed each of them a recorder she has purchased for all 70 kids in Muko HOPE and a book of music about how to play the instrument. She plans to go back to the different schools each day while we are here at 4pm to teach them the music.

We got a call from Richard who is still in Kampala telling us about a severe gas shortage. Christopher has some concern about the ability to have petrol here in Kabale and enough to get back to Kampala. We bought two jerry cans and filled them with extra petrol when we returned to Kabale this evening. We are finishing our dinner and just had a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday to Curt!